Direction: A passage is given with 5 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose thebest answer to each question out of the four alternatives. The first working steam–powered vehicle was designed and most likely built by Ferdinand Verbies, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65 cm long scale–model toy for the Chinese Emperor, that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger. It is not known if Verbiest’s model was ever built. Nicolas Joseph Cugnot is widely credited with building the first full scale, self propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769; he also created a steam–powered tricycle. He constructed two steam tractors for the French Army, one of which is preserved in the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. His inventions were however handicapped by problems of water supply and maintaining steam pressure. In 1801, Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam–powered road vehicle. It was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods. Sentiment against steampowered road vehicles led to the Locomotive Acts of 1865. In 1807 Nicephore Niepce and his brother Claude probably created the world’s first internal combustion engine which they called Pyreolophore.

Direction: A passage is given with 5 questions following it. Read the passage carefully and choose thebest answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
PASSAGE
Another marvel on the far side of the lake was a little farm that felt like a secret in the city. Some of the gaunt Karnataka labourers even looked away when children came to dig and eat. But the greatest pleasure, this side of the
lake, was the jamun tree. A few months back, Kalu and Sunil had a feast in the branches, shaking down a few berries for Mirchi. That’s when they came to know the second coolest thing about the jamun tree : There were parrots nesting in it. Since then, some other road boys had been capturing the parrots one by one to sell at the Marol Market, but Sunil had brought Kalu around to the belief that the birds should be left as they were. Sunil listened for their squawks each morning, to make sure they hadn’t been abducted in the night. Kalu’s expertise was in the recycling bins inside airline catering compounds. Private waste collectors emptied these dumpsters on a regular basis, but Kalu had mastered the trash truck’s schedules. The night before pickup, Kalu would climb over the barbed wire fences and raid the overflowing bins. Kalu’s routine had become known by the local police, however. He kept getting caught, until some constables proposed a different arrangement. Kalu could keep his metal scrap if he’d pass on information he picked up on the road about local drug dealers.
MEANINGS OF DIFFICULT WORDS/PHRASES
(1) gaunt (Adj.) : very thin especially from disease/ hunger/cold
(2) squawks (N.) : the noise of birds
(3) abducted (V.) : kidnapped
(4) dumpsters (N.) : a container designed to receive and transport dump waste